1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer games, and more particularly, to a distributed web-based game platform with mobile device motion sensor input.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is extensive prior art in video gaming, dating back to the first game of Pong in 1972, where with a very simple controller users hit a “ball” (a dot on the screen) back and forth with “paddles” (two short lines sliding up and down) on a monochrome screen. Controllers and gaming consoles have advanced considerably in the last 40 years. The PlayStation Move, for example, has customized controllers for golf (Tiger Woods Golf) and tennis (Grand Slam Tennis), or fighting (The Fight), where the gaming console costs approximately $250 and customized controllers an additional $70. The Move controller, for example, uses a camera and captures motion via a Bluetooth controller with infrared light sensors. The Xbox 360 Kinect does not even use a physical controller, as player body motions are captured via three, 3-D cameras and sophisticated pattern recognition algorithms. The Wii, PlayStation, and Xbox 360 have network capability so as to enable multiplayer gaming through their hosted online networks.
Many personal-computer-based games use a keyboard and/or mouse of a computer as the controller. In World of Warcraft, for example, by using the keyboard for communication, users click their character and on-screen functions to control the motions of soldiers as they move, battle, and build. In Gameloft Let's Golf 3 and World PGA Tour Golf, players click a “sliding bar” to control the swing of an avatar golf character. Although these games dispense with the need to purchase costly controllers, they can be difficult to control using a keyboard and/or a mouse. This is particularly apparent in high-skill games such as golf where an optimal swing to hit the ball requires a multidimensional body motion combining an arm swing, hip and shoulder turn, wrist hinge, hip shift, forearm rotation and inside out swing path, each of which done incorrectly results in a less than optimal shot. Indeed, it is simply not possible to simulate the full dynamics of a golf swing using a keyboard and/or a mouse.
The Nintendo Wii controller is connected via a Bluetooth connection to the gaming console and senses acceleration in three axes using an ADXL330 accelerometer. The Wii remote also features a PixArt optical sensor, which in combination with a 10 LED Sensor Bar, physically connected to the game console, allows the determination of where the Wii Remote is pointing. A Taiwanese company, ASRock, claims to use iPhone motion sensors to mimic the controller for a Nintendo Wii game, so that users can play existing Wii or PC-based games using an iPhone as a game controller. The iPhone is connected using Bluetooth or a WiFi network to the gaming console. This reduces the cost of the controller, but users still need the game console or a specific game controller hardware motherboard in their personal computer. ASRock software installation is also challenging and there are some usability issues.
Note that the Nintendo Wii controller, or simulated ASRock Wii controller using an iPhone, provides data that is not an accurate representation of many sport motions, such as a golf swing, a baseball swing or a tennis serve. That is, the Wii controller can provide only gross approximations to many sports motions. For example, it can sense if you made a golf swinging motion, and approximately how hard you swung, but the method cannot accurately calculate the speed at impact or the precise angle of the club head through impact.
US Published Patent Application 2010/0069158 to Kim discloses a method for multi-player card and board games such as Korean Hwatu and Mah-Jong with mobile phones, a gaming server, and a gaming console connected to a display device. However, Kim explicitly requires a gaming console physically wired to the display device, has simple key data input (ASCII data) from the mobile devices not suitable for use for realistic control of sports games, such as golf, and the mobile phones must be connected to the gaming console (e.g., via Bluetooth, infrared or a wireless LAN connection).
U.S. Pat. No. 8,019,878 to Allen et al. describes a method to control a web browser on a local area network (LAN) with a mobile device in order to create a game. However, the method is limited to devices connected on the same LAN and requires direct connection of the mobile device with the web browser on the LAN and a plug-in software download to the web browser, which does not work in currently available web-enabled TVs.
There are significant limitations in the video gaming prior art. In the case of the console-based games, the total cost of ownership to the user is significant (at least $250 for the platform to support a single game, with individual games costing about $70 each and controllers costing an additional $70). Perhaps this is one reason that sales for console-based games have been stagnant for several years. For PC-, tablet- or mobile phone-based games, typical user input is via a computer keyboard or touch screen, and this interface is not optimal for gaming involving sports body motions, such as golf, baseball, bowling or tennis.